Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (59 page)

Serve as in the preceding recipe, with slices of bread that have been warmed in the oven without toasting them.

If you are not going to cook fish you have bought right away, you can preserve it better by salting it; but then you should rinse it before cooking it.

Since fish is not a highly nourishing food, I believe that it is healthier to serve it along with meat dishes rather than eating it alone as on fasting days, unless you feel the need to re-balance your system after having eaten too many rich foods. Moreover fish, especially crustaceans and shellfish in general, on account of the significant quantities of hydrogen and phosphorus they contain, have a stimulant effect and are not recommended for anyone wishing to live a continent life.

For this dish, it is best to use different kinds of small fish; but larger fish cut into thin slices can also be prepared in the same way. When I have made it with sole and red mullet, I have cut the sole into thirds. After boning, washing, and drying the fish, you will bake it on an ovenproof metal or porcelain dish seasoned with a battuto of garlic, parsley, salt and pepper, olive oil, lemon juice, and good white wine.

Place half of the battuto with a little oil in the bottom of the dish, arrange the fish on top of it, and then pour on top more oil and the rest of the battuto, ensuring that the fish is well soaked in the condiments. Bake in the oven with fire above and below; if the dish is porcelain, place it directly in hot ashes.

This is not a difficult dish to make, so I advise you to try it. I am sure you will be happy with it.

There are several types of fish that can be marinated, but I prefer sole and large eels. If you are using sole, saute it first in oil, and salt it; if you use eel, cut it into pieces about half a finger long, without skinning it, and cook on a grill or a spit. When the eels have lost their fat, season with salt and pepper.

Take a saucepan and pour in vinegar, concentrated must
⁷⁰
(which goes with this dish like cheese goes with macaroni), whole sage leaves, whole pine nuts, raisins, a few cloves of garlic cut in half crosswise, and some small pieces of candied fruit, all in proportion to the amount of fish. If you do not have concentrated must, use sugar as a substitute and taste to correct the flavor of the vinegar, which should not be too strong. Boil this mixture and then pour it in an earthenware pan in which you have arranged the fish in such a way that the liquid completely covers it. Bring to a boil again with the fish in the liquid; then cover the pan and put it aside.

When you serve this dish, take out the amount you need with a little of the sauce. If the fish should dry out after a while, moisten it with a little more of the marinade. You can also prepare in this way the “scorpionata” eel sold in stores.

I ought to tell you that the customary way to prepare poached fish is as follows. Place on the fire the water for poaching, but not too large an amount; salt the water. Before adding the fish let the water boil for about a quarter of an hour with the following seasonings: a quarter or half of an onion (depending on the amount of fish) with two cloves stuck into it, some pieces of celery and carrot, a bit of parsley, and two or three thin slices of lemon. Another way, which some people think is better, is to put the fish into cold water and put it on the fire with the same seasonings. After the fish is cooked, leave it in the liquid until you are about to serve it. Rub the fish all over with the lemon slices while it is still raw, so that the skin is more likely to remain intact.

The fish is properly done when the eyes pop out, the skin can be easily removed with one’s fingers, and the flesh is tender. Serve hot, not too thoroughly drained. If you want to make a better impression, cover it with chopped raw parsley and surround it with a side dish of beets (cooked in water if small or baked if large) and boiled potatoes. Both should be sliced very thin so that they absorb the seasoning better; finally, add some wedges of hard-boiled egg.

If you do not make the side dish of beets and potatoes, you can serve this dish with the sauces in recipes 128,129,130,133, or 134.

You can also serve poached fish garnished in the following way, which makes a better presentation. Cut it into small pieces enough to fill a platter. Thoroughly cover the fish with mayonnaise (recipe 126) and decorate with salted anchovy fillets and whole capers.

This dish, which can also be used as an
entremets
, is made especially when you have high-quality poached fish left over. Cut the fish into small pieces, carefully remove all the bones, then put the pieces in bechamel sauce (recipe 137) and season with salt to taste, grated Parmesan cheese, and finely chopped truffles. If you do not have truffles, use a handful of dried mushrooms that have been soaked in water. Then take an ovenproof dish, grease it with butter, and sprinkle with bread crumbs; pour the fish mixture into the dish and coat with a thin layer of bread crumbs. Finally, place a dab of butter on top, brown in a Dutch oven until golden, and serve hot.

For this excellent-tasting dish you may use tuna, umber, dentex, or weever, which is incorrectly called sea bass along the Adriatic coast. Whatever fish you choose, use a piece weighing about 600 grams (about 1-1/3 pounds), which serves five people.

Remove the scales from the fish, wash and dry it, then coat well with flour and brown in a little oil. Remove from the pan, discard the small amount of oil that is left, and wipe the pan clean. Finely chop together a medium-sized onion, a stalk of white celery as long as the palm of your hand, and a generous pinch of parsley. Put on the fire with a sufficient amount of oil, and season with salt, pepper, and a whole clove. When the mix has browned, add a generous amount of tomato sauce (recipe 6) or tomato paste diluted with water. Let this boil a bit and then add the fish to finish cooking, turning it frequently. Be sure to serve the fish nicely covered with a generous amount of the thick sauce it has been cooking in.

The angel shark (
Rhina squatina
) has a flat body similar to the ray. The skin, which is rough and hard, is used to polish wood and ivory, and to line sheaths for knives, swords and the like. The flesh of this fish is rather ordinary, but when prepared in the following manner it makes a family dish that is not only edible, but more than passingly good. And it is economical, because it is easy to find, at least in Italy.

Chop together very finely a generous handful of parsley, half a carrot, a piece of celery, half a clove of garlic and, if the fish weighs about 600 grams (about 1-1/3 pounds), an onion the size of a large walnut. Place the mixture on the fire with an appropriate amount of oil, and when it has browned add tomato sauce (recipe 6) or tomato paste diluted with half a glass of water. Season with salt and pepper and then put in the piece offish (preferably a piece from the tail end, which is quite thick). Cook slowly, and when it is about two-thirds done add a dab of butter well rolled in flour to bind the sauce and give it a more delicate flavor; then cook until done.

Take a hake or cod weighing between 500 and 600 grams (between about 1 and 1-1/3 pounds) and trim all the fins, except the one on the tail, but leave the head on. Cut along the belly to remove the innards and the spine, bone it, and season with a little salt and pepper. Turn the fish backside up, grease it with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, coat it with bread crumbs, and then place it flat with two tablespoons of oil in an ovenproof platter or baking pan.

Take three large salted anchovies, or four if they are small, remove the scales and bones, chop, and place on the fire with two tablespoons of oil until they dissolve; but make sure that they do not boil. Coat the inner part of the fish with this sauce and then cover it with bread crumbs; you can toss in a few sprigs of rosemary if you like. Bake with fire above and below until the bread crumbs form a golden crust, but be careful not to let it get too dry. In fact, sprinkle some more olive oil over it, and before you remove it from the fire squeeze half a large lemon over it. I think that this should be sufficient for four to five people if you serve it with toasted bread rounds spread with caviar or a paste made with anchovies and butter.

The smooth dogfish (
Mustelus
) is a fish from the shark family, and therefore in some places it is called shark. (This explanation is for those who do not know what dogfish is.) It can be quite large, and its flesh is perhaps the best among all the
Selachii
, the order to which it belongs.

Take some dogfish rounds half a finger in thickness; rinse, dry with a kitchen towel, remove the skin with a sharp knife, season with salt and pepper, and soak for several hours in beaten egg. Coat in bread crumbs twice, dipping them again in the beaten egg, and fry in olive oil.

Now make the sauce in the following way.

Take a wide baking dish or pan and add oil in proportion to the amount of fish, a dab of butter dredged in flour (which helps to bind the sauce), a handful of chopped parsley, tomato sauce (recipe 6) or tomato paste diluted with water, and a dash of salt and pepper. When this sauce has sautéed for a little while, place the fried dogfish rounds in it, turn on both sides, and add enough water to make the sauce liquid. Remove from the fire, sprinkle with a little grated Parmesan cheese, and serve. They will be highly praised.

When sole (
Solea vulgaris
) are large, it is better to grill them and season with lard instead of olive oil; they take on a more pleasing flavor this way.

Clean the fish, scrape off the scales, rinse, and dry well. Then dab them lightly with cold virgin lard (making sure that it does not taste rancid); season with salt and pepper and coat with bread crumbs.
Melt a little more lard in a frying pan and brush this on the fish; brush again with melted lard when you turn them on the grill.

When you prepare sole for frying, you can skin them on both sides or just on the dark side, then dredge in flour, keeping in beaten egg for several hours before tossing them in the pan.

A singular thing about this fish that merits mentioning is the fact that, like all well-constructed animals, it is born with one eye on its right side and the other on the left. But at a certain period in its life the eye that was on the white (or left) side migrates over to the right side and settles, like the other eye, on the dark side. Sole and turbot swim on their blind sides. Because of the quality and delicacy of its flesh, the French call sole the “partridge of the sea.” It is a fish that is easy to digest, it resists decomposition better than many other fish, and it does not go out of season. It is found in abundance in the Adriatic, where it is caught at night with huge sack-like nets weighted down heavily at the mouth; when these nets scrape the bottom of the sea, they lift up the fish along with the sand and mud in which they lie.

Turbot, the flesh of which is not very different from that of sole, and is even more delicate, is called the “pheasant of the sea.”

Take sole that weigh no less than 150 grams (about 5-1/4 ounces) each, cut off the heads and remove the skin. Then separate the bones from the flesh with a sharp knife to obtain four long fillets for each sole, or even eight if they should be very large. Gently pound the fillets with the blunt edge of the knife, flatten them with the flat side of the blade, and then leave them for several hours in beaten egg seasoned with salt and pepper. Then coat them with bread crumbs and fry in oil. Once done, pour a bit of the oil from the frying pan into a pan or baking dish in which the fillets will fit lying flat. Add a little butter on the bottom of the dish and arrange the fillets on top, season again with a little salt and pepper, and when they have
sautéed for a while moisten them with dry white wine, and cook for five minutes with a little chopped parsley. Serve with their own sauce, sprinkling a pinch of grated Parmesan cheese over them. This dish makes a very nice presentation. Serve it with lemon wedges. Hake can also be cooked in the same way.